President or Acting President is Presidency, cannot be disowned by Presidency, Abubakar Malami dismisses media distortions of his statement on Osinbajo

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mallam Abubakar Malami (SAN), has refuted the report that he rubbished the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo saying he was on his own over his comment on EFCC Ibrahim Magu and Senate.

Osinbajo had said Magu remains EFCC boss for as long as President Buhari continues to have confidence in him and he continues to be Vice President.

Asked after the last Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by the Acting President about what the position of FEC was, Malami replied state house reporters that the matter was strictly with presidency and not of FEC and that it was not discussed at the FEC meeting.

But unfortunately the response by the minister was said to have been musrepresented particularly in major print and online media.

Refuting the report, Malami advised the media to take their job seriously and accurately to stop misinforming or feeding the public with wrong information.

He said this in a statement personallt signed by him in Abuja on Thursday.

The minister said, “It has come to my notice that a number of media organisations have been distorting and misreporting the proceedings of yesterday’s (July 5, 2017) Federal Executive Council (FEC) press briefing, and suggesting that the Presidency ‘disowned’ the Acting President on a matter relating to a presidential nomination.

“As the Chief Law Officer of the Federation, I would like to make it categorically clear that:

“1. The President – and in this case the Acting President – is the Presidency, and therefore cannot be disowned by the Presidency.

“2. All matters relating to Presidential Appointments and Nominations are strictly a matter for the Presidency to handle. They are not for the Federal Executive Council, and are therefore not discussed at FEC level. This was the point I made yesterday at the press briefing, and which was unfortunately distorted by the media.

“I would like to appeal to the media to take seriously its responsibility to inform the public honestly and accurately, to refrain from distorting or sensationalizing the news, and to seek clarification when in doubt,” Abubakar Malami said.